1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring a dental occlusion.
2. Description of the Related Art
The inventors developed an apparatus for measuring a movement of a lower jaw relative to an upper jaw, i.e., a jaw movement. See Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-229943.
As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus includes an exciting coil 91 rigidly coupled to the teeth on either of the upper jaw or the lower jaw; a sensor coil 92 rigidly coupled to the teeth on the jaw opposite to the jaw to which the exciting coil 91 is coupled; an AC power source 93 causing an alternating current to flow to the exciting coil 91; and an arithmetic circuit 94 computing a signal induced to the sensor coil 92 from the exciting coil 91 excited by the alternating current and detecting relative positions of the upper and lower jaws, the relative positions being derived from the position of the sensor coil 92 relative to the exciting coil 91. The exciting coil 91 and the sensor coil 92 are disposed in a mutually spaced-apart relation. As shown in FIG. 2, the exciting coil 91 and the sensor coil 92 each includes three sets of coils 91a, 91b, 91c (92a, 92b, 92c) wound in directions orthogonal to each other. In this apparatus for measuring the jaw movement, the AC power source 93 is connected to each of the coils 91a, 91b, 91c in the exciting coil 91, the alternating voltage induced to each of coils 92a, 92b, 92c in the sensor coil 92 is computed by the arithmetic circuit 94, and thus the relative positions of the lower jaw and the upper jaw are detected.